The present invention relates to crowd containment devices, and deals more particularly with vertically extending posts of the type housing a retractable strap.
Such posts generally provide for a strap to be withdrawn from one side of the post, and the opposite side of the post is generally provided with a receptacle for receiving a device on the end of the strap of an adjoining post to setup a plurality of such devices in a manner for accommodating people waiting in lines, or for crowd control generally.
The present invention seeks to solve a problem with respect to inadvertent release of the strap from, one post after it is secured to the top of an adjacent post. Such connections have a tendency to be inadvertently released, and the present inventions seeks to solve this problem by providing a locking device within the device provided at the free end of the strap. In accordance with the present invention the end of the strap is secured inside the device of the present invention, and the device itself is wedge shaped so as to fit within a complementary shaped socket in the post to which it is to be attached.
The present invention relates to an improvement in such a device provided at the free end of such a strap wherein the device is fitted with a manually releasable locking button that is slidably supported in the back side of the device itself. A locking tab 13 is provided in the front surface of the device (which front surface will be of course hidden when the device is placed in a socket of an adjacent post) and the locking tab includes a portion 12 that passes through an opening in a device, and is received in an aligned opening defined in the button. A spring biasing means is provided between the locking tab and the button so that the locking tab 13 is normally biased toward a position for locking the device in the socket of the post. However, the button affords a means for manually disengaging the locking tab 13 from such a socket under the control of one familiar with operation of the device.
As so constructed and arranged inadvertent release of the extended strap, and the associated device provided at the end of the strap from the socket of another post, as for example by the inadvertent raising of the device out of the socket of the adjacent post can be avoided.